sensors

Article
An Intelligent Parking Management System for
Urban Areas
Juan A. Vera-Gómez 1 , Alexis Quesada-Arencibia 2, *, Carmelo R. García 2 , Raúl Suárez Moreno 1
and Fernando Guerra Hernández 1
1 Edosoft Factory, S.L. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 35011, Spain;
[email protected] (J.A.V.-G.); [email protected] (R.S.M.); [email protected] (F.G.H.)
2 Instituto Universitario de Ciencias y Tecnologías Cibernéticas, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria,
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria 35017, Spain; [email protected]
* Correspondence: [email protected]; Tel.: +34-928-457-108

Academic Editor: Vittorio M. N. Passaro

Received: 28 April 2016; Accepted: 15 June 2016; Published: 21 June 2016
Abstract: In this article we describe a low-cost, minimally-intrusive system for the efficient
management of parking spaces on both public roads and controlled zones. This system is based on
wireless networks of photoelectric sensors that are deployed on the access roads into and out of these
areas. The sensors detect the passage of vehicles on these roads and communicate this information
to a data centre, thus making it possible to know the number of vehicles in the controlled zone and
the occupancy levels in real-time. This information may be communicated to drivers to facilitate
their search for a parking space and to authorities so that they may take steps to control traffic when
congestion is detected.

Keywords: intelligent transport systems; parking; wireless sensor network (WSN); traffic;
sensor; infrared

1. Introduction
Human mobility is a necessity in today’s world. It has a significant impact on both quality of life
and the economy of modern societies. Transport systems are, therefore, a key element in developed or
developing countries. Zhang [1], in his survey of Intelligent Transportation Systems, indicated that
40% of the world’s population spend at least one hour on the road every day. Of all the different modes
of transport, the one that is used on a massive scale is land transport by road. Such large-scale use of
this type of transport has led to congestion problems in densely populated metropolitan areas, with all
the concomitant negative consequences. According to Shawe-Taylor [2], these negative consequences
include pollution and its harmful effects on the environment and human health. Too much time on
the road means an increase in energy consumption, which has a negative impact on both individual
and national economies, as well as on the environment. Several medical studies [3] have confirmed
that road transport congestion results in a deterioration of public health because it increases the risk of
heart and respiratory diseases. Moreover, according to the WHO, over 7 million people die every year
from health problems caused by pollution.
One of the causes of this excessive amount of time spent on the road in private road transport is
the need to spend time looking for free parking spaces. Pineda [4] studied the costs generated by the
extra distance vehicles have to travel to find a parking space in the cities of Madrid and Barcelona. The
costs in consumption for the extra distance and time spent on the road are approximately 347 million
and 268 million euros per year, respectively. Public transport authorities and the operators of parking
spaces are evaluating various solutions to improve parking space management. Solutions based on
infrastructure investment are expensive and implementation is slow. Technology-based solutions have
been proposed as an alternative with lower costs and faster implementation.

Sensors 2016, 16, 931; doi:10.3390/s16060931 www.mdpi.com/journal/sensors

Sensors 2016, 16, 931 2 of 16

In this article we describe a low-cost, minimally-intrusive system for the efficient management of
parking spaces on both public roads and controlled zones. This system is based on wireless networks
of photoelectric sensors that are deployed on the access roads into and out of these areas. The sensors
detect the passage of vehicles on these roads and communicate this information to a data centre, thus
making it possible to know the number of vehicles in the controlled zone and the occupancy levels in
real-time. This information may be communicated to drivers to facilitate their search for a parking
space and to authorities so that they may take steps to control traffic when congestion is detected.
The article is structured as follows: a selection of related studies is described in the second section,
to provide context for our proposed system. The third section describes the system, explaining its
general architecture, its main constituent elements, and the method developed to detect the passage
of vehicles. Tests to verify system operation are described in the fourth section and, finally, the main
conclusions are presented in section five.

2. Related Studies
Various authors have looked at developing sensor-based technological solutions to improve the
use of parking spaces. According to Bagula [5], intelligent vehicle parking space management systems
may be classified according to the type of sensor detection. He distinguishes the systems that only
monitor the entry or exit of vehicles from the parking area from the systems that are able to detect
whether each parking space is occupied or free. Systems belonging to the first type are easier to deploy
and less expensive, appropriate for monitoring the occupancy levels of large outdoor parking areas.
Systems belonging to the second type provide more useful and more detailed information to users and
may be combined with positioning and guidance services to help locate the available spaces. This type
of system is used in indoor parking spaces and is more complex and expensive than the entry and
exit monitoring systems, as it requires that each parking space is equipped with sensors and a more
sophisticated communications infrastructure. Various parking space management system proposals
are described below.
Tang [6] proposed a wireless sensor network deployed in indoor car parks that shows the
occupancy status of each parking space. Motes (sensor nodes) equipped with acoustic and light
sensors are located in each space, and periodically notify whether the space is occupied or available.
Benson [7] also proposed a network-based wireless sensor system. A communication link is established
by ZigBee and the electromagnetic sensors were developed specifically for this system. Lin [8] proposed
a vision-based parking management system to manage an outdoor car park using cameras set up
around the parking space, sending information, including real-time display, to the ITS centre database.
A scientific solution based on a GPS-based vehicle navigation system and the past and current status
of the car park was proposed by Pullola [9], who modelled the availability of a car park using the
Poisson process. The author also proposed an intelligent algorithm which helps the driver choose
the parking space with the highest probability of being vacant. Lee [10] proposed a combination of
magnetic and ultrasonic sensors to control car parks. This system is based on a modified version of the
min-max algorithm for detection of vehicles using magnetometers and an algorithm for ultrasonic
sensors. Srikanth [11] proposed an intelligent parking management system, consisting of a wireless
network that uses different types of sensors to detect the presence of a vehicle in every one of the
parking spaces; moreover, the system informs users and guides them to the location of the available
space. The network’s sensor nodes communicate by radio frequency. Yoo [12] described a system,
called S3, which is deployed in school zones, which is designed to detect and register vehicles driving
at excessive speeds or parked in prohibited zones. This system consists of a wireless sensor network
that is divided into two subnetworks: one to detect vehicles parked in prohibited zones and the other
to detect vehicles travelling at excessive speeds. The sensors used are Anisotropic Magneto-Resistive
(AMR) magnetic sensors, and the wireless communication link is established by ZigBee. Magrini [13]
proposed a vision sensors network to monitor available spaces in public car parks, using distributed
network nodes to perform the required processing and analysis of images. Chen [14] proposed a
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 3 of 16

system for locating available spaces in indoor car parks and a guidance system to locate the available
space. The architecture of this system is based on a wireless network of ultrasound sensors that detect
the presence of a vehicle in each of the parking spaces. The status of each space is transmitted by
a sensor node that sends this information via RFID to special routing nodes, which communicate
with each other to relay the data packets sent by the sensor nodes to the control centre. The network
has a tree topology. Assistance in locating the space is provided by LEDs that indicate the status
of the parking space. In the context of public parking space management based on image sensors,
Salvadori [15] described image-processing techniques, using threshold algorithms, to monitor parking
spaces, achieving high-performance detection of their occupancy status. Alessanderlli [16] proposed
the ScanTraffic architecture, which is used to develop a system to monitor traffic flow and parking
spaces at the International Airport of Pisa; this system is also based on a wireless image sensor network.
Liu [17] described the iParking system, which is designed to facilitate the location of available spaces in
an indoor car park. The system receives data from sensors located inside the car park, which indicate
the spaces that are free, and is able to guide the driver to a free space using a positioning system for
indoor spaces that is based on smartphone capabilities. Gu [18] proposed a system for managing
parking spaces on public roads. The system is called Street Parking System (SPS), and uses a three-axis
magnetic sensor to detect vehicles and ZigBee technology for wireless communications, achieving a
reliability rate close to 99% in vehicle detection. Reve [19] also proposed a similar system, based on a
wireless sensor network and LED display system that indicates the available spaces to drivers at the car
park access points. The sensors are infrared and communications are established by radio frequency
(RF). In the context of the Smart City paradigm, Giuffrè [20] proposed an IPA (Intelligent Parking
Assistant) conceptual architecture that aims to overcome current parking management problems.
Yang [21] presented a prototype Smart Parking Services system, based on Wireless Sensor Networks
(WSNs), for finding free parking spaces. The proposed scheme consists of wireless sensor networks, an
embedded web server, a central web server, and a mobile phone application. Each parking space has a
light sensor node that detects the status of the parking space, reporting periodically to the embedded
web server via the wireless sensor networks. Using a Wi-Fi network, this information is sent to the
central web server in real time, displaying the status of the parking spaces on the driver’s mobile device.
Geng [22] proposed a smart parking system for urban areas. The system’s functions include parking
detection, reservation guarantee and Vehicle-to-Infrastructure (V2I) or Infrastructure-to-Vehicle (I2V)
communication. Considering the requirements of the user, the system assigns and reserves an optimal
parking space combining proximity to destination and parking cost, ensuring that the overall parking
capacity is efficiently utilised. The system was tested in a garage of Boston University. Tian [23]
proposed an intelligent parking management system based on License Plate Recognition (LPR), which
recognises the licence plate automatically at the car park access point and provides vehicle information;
experimental results show that this parking management system can achieve 95% accuracy, and can be
applied to real-time implementation. Karunamoorthy [24] proposed an intelligent parking system that
uses image-processing techniques to solve the problem of unnecessary time consumption in finding
a parking space in commercial car parks. This parking management system provides information
about the available parking spaces, as well as an automated payment system for registered users.
Caballero-Gil [25] proposed a low-cost service to predict and manage indoor parking spaces. This
service is based on a central system that predicts the available spaces in the car park using cellular
automata and an application for smartphones that uses various technologies to help drivers find free
parking spaces.
In summary, this review of related studies shows that most of the proposed systems are designed
to be deployed in indoor car parks and to monitor individual parking spaces, and that they usually
include guidance services to locate the available space. From the point of view of the type of sensors
used, these systems mainly use infrared and electromagnetic sensors. As for wireless communications,
they use radio frequency, with ZigBee technology being the most used. In terms of network topology
the most widely used is a tree topology.
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The system proposed in this article is designed to monitor the entry and exit of vehicles into
and out of outdoor parking zones located on public roads, not to monitor every single car space
available, thus reducing the costs related to the deployment of technology. The system has been
tested in closed car parks. On public roads, the system would not account for every single slot, but
it is designed to provide estimations on real-time occupation levels. From a technological point of
view, it uses a wireless network of photoelectric sensors, and uses 6LoWPAN over IEEE 802.15.4 for
communications. It can be used across multiple communications platforms, using the IPv6 stack, which
is hugely important to enable the IoT. IPv6 provides a basic transport mechanism to produce complex
control systems and to communicate with other devices in a cost-effective manner using low-power
wireless network. The network topology adopted for this system is a tree topology. As a result of mass
production, the sensors used for the system have a very low cost in comparison with other sensors
used for parking management systems, such as electromagnetic or pressure sensors. Despite their low
cost, these sensors perform very well in detection applications; indeed, infrared sensors are widely
employed in industrial automation processes, having proven reliability. Furthermore, their compact
size makes it possible to enclose the whole node in a small box. In addition to this advantage, both
the sensors themselves and the controlling boards have very low power consumption, and for this
reason each sensor node is to be powered by a combination of batteries and solar power, minimising
the deployment efforts and costs, as no wiring is needed. Another advantage of this approach over
others is that it does not rely on the user’s involvement for the system to meet its purpose. There
is no need for the vehicles to be equipped with smart location systems, or for the users to employ
technological gadgets to access or update information about car park availability. The system is
non-intrusive too: it does not identify the vehicles or their drivers at all, nor does it have to record or
take pictures of them. Finally, this solution does not need more data processing than that done by the
mainboards, further reducing infrastructure and system costs. Although it has not yet been developed,
the system is intended to share parking availability data with the public authorities, contributing to
a reduction in both traffic and its carbon footprint. In conclusion, the system, as will be seen in this
article, is characterised by its ease of deployment, flexibility, and affordability when incorporating new
nodes to monitor the access roads to the parking areas, and even new sensor subnets to monitor new
parking areas.

3. Description of the System

To monitor the number of available spaces in the parking zones a low-cost, low-energy WSN will
be employed. This means that a complex roll-out or new cabling infrastructure will not be required
in the zone where the proposed system is deployed. The sensors will detect the passage of vehicles
on the roads into and out of the parking areas located on public roads in real-time. The authorities
and drivers will, therefore, know the occupancy levels of the parking zones at all times. The real-time
response is essential because the system would not be practicable if there was a considerable delay
in updating these data. Relaying pseudo real-time information to drivers avoids them having to
spend more time on the road searching for a parking space, which hinders the circulation of other
vehicles and increases fuel consumption, emissions, and noise pollution. Therefore, the proposed
system will enable transport regulators to manage public parking zones sustainably. In addition, to
facilitate a scalable and flexible roll-out in large urban areas, the system can make use of virtualisation
and computing paradigms to obtain the processing and storage resources required by the system
architecture. This will enable comprehensive, centralised handling of the data provided by the sensor
network in a control centre.
Figure 1 shows the system being deployed on a public road and in a controlled parking area. The
scheme represents the sensors and their direction on the access points and their communication with
the gateway that relays the signal to the data centre. This gateway system may also provide in situ
information on the occupancy level of both areas through an LED system.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 5 of 16

Figure 1. System architecture in a closed car park and on a public road.

3.1. System Architecture

The proposal consists of a network of wireless sensors located on roads in and out of public
parking areas. These sensors detect the entry and exit of vehicles into and out of the parking areas, and
transmit this information via the network. The sensors are connected to network nodes that receive
the data provided by the sensors and transmit them across the network; this type of node is called a
sensor node. In the network topology there is a node that enables the exchange of data between the
sensor nodes and the data centre; this node is called a gateway node. Data obtained from the sensor
network are stored and managed in the data centre, which is also where the operation of each sensor
node is controlled. The data obtained by the data centre enable the provision of services that report on
the occupancy levels of the parking spaces on public roads.
Each sensor node on the network will be developed on a proprietary platform that will be
responsible for collecting the data obtained by the sensor or sensors associated with that node,
interpreting and packaging information and transmitting it over the network. The sensor nodes
must have low consumption levels, although when placed in outdoor parking areas it will be possible
to add a small photovoltaic panel.
The gateway node links the sensor nodes and the data centre. The sensor nodes notify the data
centre when a vehicle enters or exits the monitored parking area and receives orders that development
or maintenance engineers wish to transmit to the network from the data centre, via the gateway.
The data centre controls the sensor network and manages the data provided by it. To carry out
these procedures, this component of the architecture has two subsystems: the sensor network control
subsystem that allows technical staff to configure and supervise the operations of the sensor network;
and the subsystem for recording data provided by the sensors, which stores and processes the data in
order to provide information services to users (authorities and drivers) about the status of the parking
areas monitored by the system. To achieve scalability and flexibility in the data centre computing and
storage resources, we propose using cloud virtualisation and computing paradigms in the system.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 6 of 16

3.1.1. Sensor Nodes

The sensor nodes send data packets that notify the entry or exit of a vehicle into or out of the
monitored parking area. These packets include the identification number of the network and of the
node to identify the parking area in question. Each sensor node interprets the messages received from
the data centre. These packets contain the same fields as those sent by the node, but the identification
fields of the network and node will correspond in this case to the terminal or terminals to which the
message is directed, and the data field will contain the order sent by the data centre to the sensor nodes.
For the hardware components of the nodes two circuit boards were used: a mainboard and a sensor
board. The mainboard includes the components responsible for data processing and communication
between nodes, while the sensor board is connected to the sensor. These two circuit boards, the batteries
and a solar panel are housed in a box with IP67 protection measuring 82 mm ˆ 80 mm ˆ 85 mm.
The batteries are lithium polymer 1900 mAh, with a nominal voltage of 3.7 V, and the solar panel has a
power output of 0.4 W (5 V/80 mA).
The main component of the mainboard is the CC2530 system-on-chip from Texas Instruments [26],
a system that includes a microcontroller and a radio module in the integrated circuit. The
microcontroller is the 16-bit Intel 8051 and has 8 KB of RAM and a programmable flash memory
of 256 KB. The radio module is a transceiver that operates in the 2.4 GHz band and is compatible
with the IEEE 802.15.4 protocol, with programmable output power of up to 4.5 dBm, allowing a
maximum transmission speed of 250 Kbps. Another component that has been integrated into the
mainboard is the CC2591 amplifier, also manufactured by Texas Instruments, which is compatible with
the proposed radio system because it also operates in the 2.4 GHz band. This amplifier extends the
range of communications by providing a power amplifier that increases output power and improves
receiver sensitivity.
One of the main characteristics of the mainboard is its small size (50 ˆ 70 mm). Wireless
communication is established using the 6LoWPAN standard that enables the use of IPv6 over the IEEE
802.15.4 standard. The main objective of using this standard is to be able to use IPv6 on a low-energy
WSN, thereby enabling small devices, with limited processing power, to achieve broad connectivity
(interoperability) and to maximise the battery life (Mulligan [27]).
The mainboard also has an RS-232 interface, JTAG, and a number of expansion connectors
allowing communication with external devices.
As shown in Figure 2, in addition to these devices, a 3 V DC/DC converter has been added to the
mainboard to adapt the voltage supplied by the battery to that required by the integrated circuits. This
is necessary because the nominal battery voltage is 3.7 V.

Figure 2. Block diagram of the mainboard.

Sensors 2016, 16, 931 7 of 16

As shown in Figure 3, the sensor board is composed of a series of interfaces and voltage converters
to allow connection to a wide range of sensors. It has two DC/DC voltage converters, 12 V and 5 V,
an SDI-12, and a 4–20 mA interface. This circuit board also features a battery charging system through
an external solar panel, thus increasing the autonomy of the nodes.

Figure 3. Block diagram of the sensor board.

The photoelectric sensor used is a SHARP-GP2Y0D02YK0F (Sharp Corporation, Osaka, Japan) [28],
shown in Figure 4.

Figure 4. SHARP-GP2Y0D02YK0F sensor alongside a standard AA battery to give an idea of its size.

This photoelectric sensor allows detection by the three types of standard sensing modes listed in
Table 1.
The chosen sensing mode is the diffuse mode, justified by its simple installation requirements,
with no calibration needed, and its detection performance. During the experimental process, sensors
were deployed in speed bumps. However, future deployments could be altered and make use of
street furniture like bollards, street lights, or traffic lights. When those are not available, the most
straightforward installation is to deploy sensors on the ground, avoiding the need for retro-reflective
or through-beam sensors.
To count vehicles entering and leaving the car park, two photoelectric sensors were used to avoid
false positives. If a person or an object other than a vehicle interrupts the sensor IR beam, it could
be incorrectly counted, but using two sensors and debugged controlling software, the count will not
increase unless the pair of sensors actually detect a vehicle. This pair of sensors is fitted on speed
bumps located on the entry and exit roads to the parking zones, as shown in Figure 5.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 8 of 16

Table 1. Standard sensing modes of the sensor.

Sensing Mode Advantages Disadvantages

- The range depends on the

characteristics of the object
DIFFUSE
DIFFUSE - Ideal for (colour, reflectivity, etc.).
short-range applications. - A highly reflective
- Does not need a reflector. background may cause false
- Easy installation/alignment. triggering of the sensor.
- Relatively short
sensing range.

RETROREFLECTIVE
- Moderate sensing range. - Shorter sensing range than
- Easy to align. through-beam.
- Requires assembly and - May detect reflections from
wiring of only one shiny objects.
emitter/receiver unit. - Requires reflector.

- Requires proper alignment.

THROUGH-Beam - High margin for
contaminated environments. - Not recommended for
detection of
- Longer sensing range than
transparent objects.
other technologies.
- Requires space to mount and
- Most reliable sensing mode
wire the emitter and
for highly reflective objects.
receiver individually.

Figure 5. Installation of the sensors in two speed bumps (left) photoelectric sensor located at the centre
of the speed bump; (Right) Pair of speed bumps with the photoelectric sensors.

To develop the software for the sensor nodes we used the Contiki [29] operating system and the
specific library for the CC2530 system-on-chip. Contiki is an open-source operating system geared
towards the Internet of Things. It enables communication with microcontrollers via the Internet and
can run on a wide range of wireless low-power devices, providing mechanisms to estimate the total
energy consumption of the system and to identify the units that consume the most. In addition,
Contiki is designed for small systems with only a few kilobytes of memory available; it is very efficient
at memory management and provides different memory allocation mechanisms. With regard to
communications, Contiki is fully compatible with the IPv6 and IPv4 standards, providing a full IP
network stack, with standard protocols such as User Datagram Protocol (UDP), Transmission Control
Protocol (TCP), and Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Furthermore, it also supports low-power
wireless communications on the 6LoWPAN, Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks
(RPL) and CoAP standards.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 9 of 16

3.1.2. Gateway
The gateway node receives the packets sent by the sensor nodes and sends them on to the data
centre. It also links communications in the opposite direction. From the hardware point of view, this
element is composed of a mainboard similar to that used for the sensor nodes. Therefore, the gateway
software will have characteristics and functionalities similar to that used for the sensor nodes without
having to perform data packing or unpacking.
The gateway will communicate with the sensor nodes using the 6LoWPAN communication
protocol. If there is a node in the data centre acting as a border router, communication between the
base station and the gateway will be done by 6LoWPAN. However, if the gateway is located very close
to the data centre, a RS-232 serial connection will be used.

3.1.3. Data Centre

The data centre will receive information transmitted by the gateway and from the sensor nodes
of the network, giving readings which indicate the passage of vehicles. It will also send the relevant
instructions to the sensor network and store system data.
A server component will be installed to read and send data to the wireless sensor network while,
for storing system information, a registration component will be used in the data centre.
The server component for reading and sending data to the sensor network was developed as
a web service, using Play Framework with Java technology. This framework is inspired by Ruby
on Rails and Django, and enables flexible web applications to be built. It is a modular framework
with integrated unit testing (it includes support for JUnit and Selenium) that allows static methods,
non-blocking asynchronous communication, and simple corrective maintenance.
The registration component consists of a database which will store information on registered
users, the sensor networks deployed, the number of parking spaces available, etc. Specifically, we used
PostgreSQL to set up the database. PostgreSQL functions include transactions, referential integrity,
views and a multitude of features. It also incorporates Multiversion Currency Control—MVCC—which
allows other clients to access it while a process is being written in a table without the need for locking.
These features are suitable for systems that need to handle large amounts of data and a high number
of concurrent users accessing the system simultaneously, as will be required by the proposed system.

3.2. Communications System

Communication between the sensor nodes and the gateway node will be performed using the
6LoWPAN protocol on the Contiki operating system. This protocol allows the use of IPv6 over wireless
networks implemented using the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. In the proposed system each sensor node is
assigned an IP address.
The transmission of packets using the IPv6 protocol requires an adaptation layer between IPv6
and the IEEE 802.15.4 standard. One of the functions of this adaptation layer is to compress the IP
header, as this header is too large for 802.15.4. It also handles the fragmentation and reconstruction of
packets because IPv6 supports a maximum transfer unit of 1280 bytes, while the maximum for the
IEEE 802.15.4 standard is 127 bytes. It also handles the routing of packets within the local IP network,
routing to external IP networks, readings of the status of neighbouring nodes, and support for multicast
transmission. In the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, node consumption during transmission varies between
10 and 30 mA, depending on the power level, and communication is performed with a maximum
transfer rate of 250 kbit/s. IEEE 802.15.4 uses the ISM band for industrial, scientific, and medical uses:
868 MHz in Europe, 915 MHz in the US, and 2.4 GHz worldwide. However, when designing devices
for wireless sensor networks, the 2.4 GHz band is usually chosen since it is not assigned.
It should be noted that the sensor network will be implemented following the ad hoc topology.
This network topology describes networks as flexible mesh. In these networks all of the nodes provide
routing services, so, in addition to functioning as end devices, they also perform packet retransmission
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 10 of 16

multi-hop functions. This way it is possible to transmit packets to nodes with which there is no direct
coverage. Thanks to this feature, the network can cover large areas. However, this topology requires
routing protocols to calculate the most efficient route to favour lower energy consumption in the nodes.
Figure 6 shows the payload of a 6LoWPAN packet structure used in the system for communicating
with the nodes. The payload consists of a custom header, IDs for each specific sensor node, the data
length and the data itself (a message determining whether a vehicle went in or out). These messages
are sent using 6LoWPAN protocol under Contiki.

Figure 6. Structure of data packet sent by the sensor nodes.

3.3. Detection of the Passage of Vehicles

This section describes the method used to detect the passage of a vehicle on a road into or out of a
parking area. The method is designed to detect cars, vans or larger vehicles of two or more axles.
The sensor node is connected to two sensors that detect the passage of vehicles. Figure 7 shows
the solution proposed using the GP2Y0D02YK0F SHARP (Sharp Corporation, Osaka, Japan) infrared
sensor. Each of the two sensors S1 and S2 was placed in a speed bump for protection and as a deterrent
to encourage the vehicle’s wheels to pass on each side of the speed bump. The distance, L, between
the two bumps was fixed in order to detect vehicles longer than a certain length. The exit and entry
monitoring process was carried out by controlling the activation and deactivation event of each of the
sensors (On/Off).

Figure 7. Deployment of the sensors.

Knowing the precise situation of the two sensors and the distance between them, this configuration
allows the passage of a vehicle and its direction to be detected, thanks to the order of activation and
deactivation of the sensors (see Table 2). When a car is entering or exiting, the system starts from an
idle state, in which no sensor is active. Then, an entering or exiting vehicle activates the first sensor,
S1 or S2 respectively. As the vehicle continues its movement, the second sensor will be activated: S2 for
entering vehicles and S1 for exiting vehicles. In the final stage before returning to an idle state, only one
sensor would be active: S2 for entering vehicles and S1 for vehicles moving in the opposite direction.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 11 of 16

Table 2. Map of direction vector control events with two in-line sensors.

Entry Exit
S1 S2 S2 S1
Off Off Off Off
On Off On Off
On On On On
Off On Off On
Off Off Off Off

However, this configuration of sensor pairs is not sufficient to avoid false positives. To decrease
the error rate, two timers, T1 and T2, were added to the monitoring process, one for each sensor,
to avoid false positives. False positives can be triggered by a moving object; for instance, a person with
a shopping trolley, passing through the sensor system, or if a vehicle reverses at the entrance, or if a
vehicle uses the lane to perform a manoeuvre to change direction. Therefore, the distance parameters
between the sensors and the timers monitoring the time of passage should be set with precision.
The detection algorithm follows the sequence diagram shown in Figure 8. This diagram describes
how the T1 and T2 values are associated with each of the sensors to detect different events: passage of
a vehicle, vehicle reverses when passing through, or the vehicle is stationary.

Figure 8. Vehicle entry detection sequence diagram.

As the diagram shows, it is necessary to check that the vehicle has been detected by the two pairs
of sensors. This avoids false positives in the event that the vehicle reverses and does not enter, or leaves
the parking area.
As the vehicle enters, a reading is taken from both sensors every second. If sensor 1 is activated,
timer T1 is initiated to verify that the sensor has been activated by a vehicle and not a person or other
object, and once the wait time has passed, a reading is taken from sensor 2.
If sensor 1 is still active but sensor 2 has not been activated, it means that the vehicle has stopped.
If, however, sensor 1 is deactivated without sensor 2 having been activated the vehicle has reversed.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 12 of 16

If sensor 2 has been activated and sensor 1 remains active, timer T2 is initiated to verify that sensor 2
has been activated by a vehicle.
If none of the sensors is then deactivated it may mean that the vehicle is stationary or that a long
vehicle is passing. Lastly, a reading of the status of both sensors is taken, in the expectation that sensor
1 has been deactivated before sensor 2, which means that the vehicle has entered the parking area.
To detect a vehicle leaving the parking area, the same process is followed in reverse: first sensor 2
has to be activated and then sensor 1.
In Figure 9 we can see the role that the timer plays in detecting vehicle entry; in this case Timer1
(T1), associated with Sensor1 (S1) has been activated after an Off signal from S1. Therefore, it is
not counted as an attempted entry since the vehicle would have had to reach a speed of more than
20 km/h.

Figure 9. Sequence diagram showing a failed attempt to enter.

The “vehicle detection” event, both at the entry and exit control points, is notified by sending a
data frame from the sensor node to the gateway node, then on to the data centre. Following the data
frame structure described in Section 3.2 and shown in Figure 6 for notification of entry or exit of a
vehicle, the data packet sent by the sensor node will be structured as shown in Figure 10: a header
of six bytes with the values 53hex , 45hex , 4Ehex ,53hex , 4Fhex , and 52hex (the word SENSOR) followed
by the sensor node identifier, the sensor identifier, the number of bytes in the data field of the frame,
which in this case is 1 and, finally, the data field containing the value 1hex if notifying vehicle entry or a
0hex if notifying vehicle exit.

Figure 10. Structure of data packet sent by the sensor nodes to notify vehicle entry or exit.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 13 of 16

4. Tests
To test the proposed system under real conditions, it was installed in a parking area located on the
Tafira Campus of the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. This parking area has a capacity for
10 vehicles and has a single lane that is used both to enter and exit; the setup is shown in Figure 11. The
tests were conducted to verify the behaviour of the following aspects of the system: communications
system; establishing the configuration parameters of the system for correct detection of the passage
of a vehicle (distance between the two speed bumps fitted with a sensor and the time each sensor
indicating the presence of a vehicle must be active); and incorrect detection of the passage of a vehicle
due to a false positive.

Figure 11. Deployment of prototype sensor system to monitor access to the parking area. The sensors
are installed in the speed bumps.

To check the communications system was functioning correctly, an automatic periodic verification
process was developed to check the status of each sensor node. Specifically, the sensor nodes were
programmed, once they had been activated from the data processing centre, to send the status of their
batteries every hour over a period of seven days. It was found that these were correctly identified by
their IPv6 address and that the frames were sent correctly without errors and correctly routed through
the gateway node to the central data processing system. One hundred sixty-eight packages of 168 were
received, with an error rate of 0%. The weather conditions during the test were: clear sky, cloudy sky,
and light rain.
Bearing in mind the way that the method of detecting passing vehicles was designed, two values
need to be correctly configured for the process to run reliably:

‚ The distance separating the sensors placed in each speed bump. This is a fixed value that we have
 called L.
‚ The time that each sensor of the pair controlled by a node sensor needs to be active, thus indicating
the presence of a moving object. This is a value that can be varied by reprogramming the sensor
nodes. We have called these values T1 (value of sensor 1 timer) and T2 (value of sensor 2 timer);
T1 = T2.

The distance separating the two sensors, each installed in a speed bump, is a fixed value and, for
a correct setting, the lengths of the different types of vehicles on the market must be taken into account.
For this, we conducted a study of vehicle lengths (see Table 3), concluding that the most appropriate
distance is 2.6 m, corresponding to the shortest wheelbase, but longer than the wheelbase of other
moving objects, such as a bicycle or a motorcycle.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 14 of 16

Table 3. Values of timers T1 and T2, depending on vehicle type, at a constant speed of 20 km/h.

Vehicle Type Wheelbase Value (s)

Bus 15 m 2.7
Articulated bus 18.75 m 3.24
Car Variable: 6.092 m max. 2.6 m min. 0.468–1.08
Bicycle 1.1 m 0.18

The time that each sensor must be active indicating the presence of a moving object, T1 for sensor 1
and T2 for sensor 2, depends on the speed of the vehicle in the parking area access lane; the maximum
speed allowed in parking areas is 20 km/h. Table 3 shows these values for different types of vehicles
travelling at 20 km/h.
False positive situations are impossible to avoid, due to moving objects other than vehicles
entering the parking zone, or an intentional improper use of the deployed system. However, these
kinds of errors did not appear during the test period, although false negative values were detected.
These were caused by vehicles, generally short vehicles, not passing over both sensors situated on
the ground, but avoiding one of them when entering or leaving the parking zone. These tests were
performed using conventional passenger cars, not other types of vehicles, like trucks or buses, due to
parking size restrictions.

5. Conclusions
One way to mitigate the negative effects of heavy vehicle traffic in urban and metropolitan areas
is the effective management of vehicle parking spaces. Technology has been mooted as the basis
for solutions that will have the fastest impact and lowest cost. This article has described a scalable,
low-cost, and minimally-intrusive parking space monitoring system, using a wireless sensor network
based on IPv6, using the 6LoWPAN protocol, a cloud-based management system and photoelectric
sensors. The network sensors are located on speed bumps placed on the way in or out of the parking
areas; these sensors are connected to nodes capable of processing the signal sent by the sensors to
detect the entry or exit of vehicles into or out of the parking area. These nodes communicate wirelessly
with in situ signalling devices and gateway units that send the signal to the central management server
for processing or distribution via the Internet. The system architecture and the elements that configure
it facilitate deployment in parking zones located on public roads. The number of detection monitoring
units is low, and the system can, therefore, be scaled up to a city-wide level, monitoring entire areas,
as long as all the entry and exit points are controlled.
To check the system, it was tested under real conditions monitoring a car park on a university
campus. The tests showed that the system works correctly with an error rate of less than 1%.
For future research, we propose reducing installation impact by incorporating the solar power
system and the processing and communication node together with the sensors in the speed bump,
as this would further facilitate adoption of this monitoring technology. In addition, tests should be
conducted in traffic zones with higher speeds—50 and 60 km/h—in order to be able to implement the
system on fast lane exit points and, thus, monitor entire districts of a city.

Acknowledgments: This Project has been funded by code TSI-020601-2012-47 under AETySI—Competitividad
I+D programme of the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism (sponsors). Thanks to Instituto
Universitario de Ciencias y Tecnologías Cibernéticas of ULPGC for the right for use its parking area for prototype
deployment. Thanks also to every member of Edosoft Factory Lab Team for their collaboration in the project.
Author Contributions: Juan A. Vera Gómez directed the research study; all authors contributed to the design of
the system architecture, the hardware selection and the tests; Alexis Quesada-Arencibia and Carmelo R. García
developed the data centre software module and the communication system. Juan A. Vera Gómez,
Raúl Suárez Moreno and Fernando Guerra Hernández developed the sensor nodes software module and the
gateway software module; all authors contributed to the preparation of this manuscript.
Sensors 2016, 16, 931 15 of 16

Conflicts of Interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Abbreviations
The following abbreviations are used in this manuscript:
WHO World Health Organization
WSN Wireless Sensor Network
IPv6 Internet Protocol version 6
IPv4 Internet Protocol version 4
UDP User Datagram Protocol
TCP Transmission Control Protocol
HTTP Hypertext Transfer Protocol
6LoWPAN IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks
RPL IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-Power and Lossy Networks
CoAP Constrained Application Protocol
MVCC Multiversion Concurrency Control

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